Part 2
Max Grubb has specially written for the Newsletter an extensive appraisal and appreciation of the voice, career and character of one of the greatest singers ever to have walked the opera stage. The second part, dealing with Birgit Nilsson's Recorded Legacy, regaling us with many of the Nilsson Anecdotes – Nilsson was famous for her sense of humour as well as her voice. Part 3, dealing with Nilsson's sense of humour and a select bibliography, will appear in the next issue
Obituaries appearing in newspapers following her death have concentrated on the chronological aspects of her career. The following article will examine her role as the foremost ‘hochdramatische' soprano of the twentieth century; the tour of Australia in September and October 1973; significance and contribution to the development of the recording of classical music; her recorded legacy both aural and visual; and will conclude with some anecdotes about her. Many of the claims made might seem to be overstated, particularly in the first section, and as such, I would hope stimulate discussion about the career of this remarkable singer.
Birgit Nilsson: Her Recorded Legacy .
Birgit Nilsson, as with her Australian counterpart Joan Sutherland, shared a similar trajectory in recording their repertoire. Both became international stars in 1959 following their respective debuts, Sutherland as Lucia at Covent Garden in February and Nilsson as Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera in December. Both singers emerged at a time when their predecessors no longer dominated the operatic stage, Flagstad had retired and opera and concert appearances by Maria Callas were becoming rarities.
The Introduction of Stereophonic Sound and ‘Sonicstage.
With the introduction of the LP for domestic use in 1951, it became feasible for the major recording companies to record complete operas. Columbia , Decca and RCA began to record the mainstream Italian and Mozart operas using opera singers they had under contract. Until 1956 these recordings were done in monaural sound. By 1956 however
Columbia (EMI) and especially Decca had begun to record in stereophonic sound and the first stereo LPs came on to the domestic market in 1958. The Decca Record Company signed Nilsson and Sutherland to exclusive contracts in 1959 and proceeded over the next decade to record their major roles whilst they performed these same roles in the world's leading opera houses.
Decca had introduced a recording process called ‘sonicstage' in 1957 whereby a rectangular stage surrounded by microphones was set up and within which singers would move as in a stage performance of the opera. What this meant was that opera recordings were recorded using state of the art sound and that they had vividness and realism which was now available in the home. Decca wished to use this process to record the ‘Ring' and the operas by Richard Strauss believing that this would bring out the musical detail of the orchestration and dramatic qualities of the narrative. (Culshaw, Ring Resounding , (1967) and Putting the Record Straight (1981). This process in a somewhat experimental and primitive form was first used in the recordings of Die Walkure Acts 1(Decca 425 963-2) and 3 (Decca 425 986-2) in 1957. Nilsson's recordings of Tristan (1960), Salome (1961) and the ‘Ring' (1962-1965) pioneered the evolution of this technique. Humphrey Burton's documentary made for the BBC, The Golden Ring (Decca 071 153-9) of the final recording sessions of Gotterdammerung in 1965 shows the use of this process and contains the best visual record of Nilsson singing Wagner when she was at the peak of her career. So important was Nilsson to the recording of the ‘Ring' that in 1958 Decca delayed the project so that they could secure her services because she was regarded as more marketable than the other leading ‘hochdramatic' soprano of the day, Astrid Varnay (Culshaw, 1967, p.82)
In the 1950's the star power of singers such as Callas, di Stefano and Gobbi for Columbia, Tebaldi, del Monaco and Bastiannini for Decca, and Milanov, Bjorling, Merrill and Warren were major contributors to the artistic and commercial success of recording complete opera. A second generation of opera singers of the LP era emerged after 1959 in tandem with stereophonic recording. The quality and size of voice, and the powerful high notes of singers such as Nilsson and Sutherland, and the excitement of stereophonic sound, encouraged many consumers, including myself to purchase their latest recordings. Growing up in Australia in the 1960's this was the only way to experience the operas of Wagner and Strauss as these were rarely performed by the Elizabethan Opera Company (1956-1966) and Australian Opera (post 1967). As such, one's musical education was based on LP recordings. For my eighteenth birthday and for passing the matriculation exams and gaining entry to university, my parents (at my behest) gave me the complete recording of Siegfried . Thus began my first encounter with the voice of Birgit Nilsson, and I would eagerly await each new installment of the “Ring' and new recordings by Nilsson of Isolde, A Masked Ball , Macbeth , Elektra , Tosca , Turandot , Aida and even Don Giovanni .
Live Telecasts .
During the late 1950's and 1960's, the Ed Sullivan Show and the Bell Telephone Hour regularly presented the major singers of opera reprising excerpts from roles they had sung on the stage. Nilsson's appearances on these shows is well documented and now available on DVD, Great Moments in Opera from the Ed Sullivan Show (Kultur D2528) and Great Stars of Opera: Telecasts from The Bell Telephone Hour 1959-1966, Vols.1 (VAI 4201), 2 (VAI 4232) and 3 (VAI 4280). They capture her at the peak of her career in excerpts from the many roles she sang at the Metropolitan Opera and also include her singing rarities, such as “Come Unto Him' from The Messiah and “Inflammatus” from Rossini's Stabat Mater (VAI 4280).
From the mid 1970's, major opera companies began to have live telecasts of staged opera. The star power of major singers such as Nilsson, Domingo, Sutherland and Pavarotti was used to attract new audiences to opera. Early telecasts were irregular. Some of these included the following: Tristan and Isolde with Nilsson and Jon Vickers from the Orange Festival (1973)(Kultur D2230); Nilsson's debut in the role of the Dyers Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Stockholm Opera (1975); the Australian Opera telecast Joan Sutherland in Lakmé (1976), Lucrezia Borgia (1977) and Norma (1978); the Metropolitan Opera with Domingo and Cotrubas in Rigoletto (1977) and La Bohème (1977) with Pavarotti and Renato Scotto; Covent Garden with Domingo and Katia Ricciarelli in A Masked Ball (1978) and Luisa Miller (1979). Regular scheduling of live opera by public broadcasters began in earnest in the early 1980's.
When the Metropolitan Opera began to telecast live opera on a regular basis the first project was Strauss's Elektra with Nilsson. James Levine's biographer commented: “Historically, there is nothing in this group more important than the first project, Strauss's Elektra with Birgit Nilsson from February 1980. This is one of the great documents in the history of opera in this century....This is a landmark release that caused us to reconsider the entire idea of operatic recording” (Marsh, 1998, pp.258). Thus began the era of regular telecasts from the Met.
The Major Recordings.
No other ‘hochdramatische' soprano was as fortunate as Nilsson to have made complete recordings of her major roles in the studio, whilst at the same time appearing on the stages of the world's leading opera houses in the same roles.
Her major recordings were made between 1960 and 1969. During this period she made what are regarded as definitive recordings of Salome (1961), Brünnhilde in the Ring (Solti 1962-1965, and Böhm 1967), Turandot (1965), Isolde (1966), and Elektra (1967). Many of her roles were recorded twice and on many occasions the later recordings were an improvement on her earlier work. For example, Tristan and Isolde (1960 and 1966), Turandot (1959 and 1965), and the Ring (1962-1965) and (1967). Others, such as, Donna Anna (1961 and 1967) were less successful. Some of the most incisive comments regarding her recordings are to be found in Steane, The Grand Tradition (1974). Christa Ludwig comments: “But recordings couldn't do justice to her timbre, because her voice was so big that recording tape was incapable of capturing it accurately” (Ludwig, 1999, p.199).
The Early Years (1957 – 1964)
Her early recitals of 1958 and 1959 (Testament SBT 1200 and 1201), excerpts from Tristan (Decca 452 896-2) and complete recordings of Girl of the Golden West (EMI CMS 7 63970 2), Turandot (RCA RD 85932(2), the complete Tristan (Decca 430 234-2) and Die Walkure (Decca 470 443-2) show a voice of icy crystalline quality. The 1962 recital, Nilsson Sings Verdi (Decca 475 6413), shows this quality, particularly Abigale's aria from Nabucco , ‘Pace. Pace mio dio' from Forza and ‘O don fatale' from Don Carlos with piercing top notes. Her 1963 recital of German Arias (Decca 467 912-2 containing excerpts from this recital) shows a voice developing more body, warmth and expression. This development is apparent in Siegfried (Decca 455 568-2) and the final scenes contain her best singing for this period, particularly the high C at the end. Culshaw observed that Solti was very pleased on hearing the playback: “Solti came out with one of his classic bits of garbled English . ‘It's animalig! ' he said. It's a perfect screaming!' ‘He meant it had the right, earthy, animal quality…”(Culshaw, 1967, p.161).
The Middle Years (1964 – 1968)
These could be categorised as her ‘glory” years when her best recordings were made. These include Macbeth (1964), Fidelio (1964), Gotterdammerung (1964 and 1965), Turandot (1965) and Die Walkure (1965), Tristan and Isolde (1966) and the live ‘Ring' (1967). Her most productive year for studio recordings was 1967 when she recorded Tosca, Donna Anna, Aida and Elektra.
Her complete recording of Macbeth in 1964 (Decca 433 039-2) shows the voice having more warmth and ‘thicker' in production than the three arias she recorded from this opera in 1962. Similarly, her recordings of Turandot (1965) (EMI CMS 7 69327-2) and Die Walkure (1965) (Decca 455 561-2) show the voice more prominent and having a visceral impact which the 1959 and 1961 recordings lacked. Nowhere is this more in evidence than Brünnhilde's battle cry at the beginning of Act 2 of Die Walkure and the riddle scene in Act 2 of Turandot .
Arguably her best recordings of this period are Tristan and Isolde (DGG 419 889-2), a theatrical ‘tour de force' on stage and Elektra (Decca 417 345-2). Elektra demonstrate superb characterization, powerful top notes which overwhelm the listener, particularly in the confrontation scene with Klytamnestra, and sensitive use of pianissimo in the recognition scene with Oreste.
The live recordings from Bayreuth of Tristan (1966) and the Ring (1967) show the voice with great power, accuracy and expression, but without the ‘edge' it appears to have had when she recorded these roles for Decca in the recording studio earlier in the decade.
Nilsson's only recital disc made during this phase of her career was Land of the Midnight Sun (1965) (Decca 473 794-2) featuring songs by Grieg, Sibelius and Rangstrom. The voice cuts through the orchestra and tends to overpower the songs of Grieg and Sibelius, particularly Hostkvall (which has a stunning top B and C), however, the voice has more empathy with the darker quality of the Rangstrom songs, particularly Skoldmon (Valkyrie).
The Later Years (1969 – 1977)
By 1969 Nilsson had recorded all the major roles in her operatic repertoire and her recording career began to slow down. She recorded the role of Agathe in Der Freischutz and those of Elizabeth and Venus in Tannhäuser in 1969. The former was undertaken too late in her career and it is rather stodgy. The recording of Tannhäuser (DGG 471 708-2) is very successful and is arguably the best recording vocally of the opera due to strong casting in the major roles, with Windgassen in the title role, Fischer-Dieskau as Wolfram, Theo Adam as the Landgrave. Her 1970 recording of Oberon (DGG 419 038 –2) is very good, although the coloratura in ‘Dunkel ist es schon und spat' in the finale to Act 1.is somewhat laboured.
During this period she recorded two recital discs for Phillips of repertoire that one does not normally associate her with. In Birgit Nilsson sings Wagner conducted by Colin Davis (1972), the excerpt from The Flying Dutchman (Phillips 454 312-2) compares unfavourably with her 1958 recording, whilst arias from Rienzi and Die Feen (not included in this compilation) and the Wesendonck Lieder are welcome additions to her recorded repertoire. A later recital disc (1974) conducted by Leif Segerstam includes Sieglinde's aria ‘Du bist du Lenz ‘and the Kundry Parsifal Scene from Act 2 of Parsifal (Phillips 454 312-2) is also welcome additions, particularly the latter. It is useful to compare Nilsson's recording made at the age of 56 with recordings by Flagstad (RCA GD 87915, Track 3) recorded in 1940 when Flagstad was 45 and at the peak of her career, and Flagstad's live recording from Covent Garden (LCD 144-1) in 1951 when she was 56. Nilsson's tone is bright and forward, however, the lower placement of Flagstad's voice in both recordings sits more comfortably with the role and gives greater pleasure.
Her last major recording was that of the Dyers Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten , conducted by Karl Böhm at the Vienna Staatsoper in 1977, with a cast including; Leonie Rysanek as the Empress, James King as the Emperor, Walter Berry as Barak and Ruth Hesse as the Nurse (DGG 415 472-2). The recording was made in September and whilst it shows Nilsson in great form, the middle voice appears to lack the support it once had. I was fortunate to see two performances of this opera at the Richard Strauss Festival in Vienna in January 1977 and recall that the January performances found her in better voice.
The last major recordings in the public domain are from the Metropolitan Opera, Elektra (1980) (PC-11520D) and the Centennial Gala of 1982 (PC-94-046-D). Elektra finds her in good form although with diminished prowess; her stage presence formidable, the high notes are all there, but the middle register is missing and there is a tendency to sing flat and emit ‘mooing' sounds. The same observation can be made of her rendition of ‘Isolde's Narration and Curse” which she sang at the Centennial Gala. Having attended a performance of Elektra and performances of Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Vienna Festival in June 1979, the vocal decline since 1977 was marked, and even more so in the Met performances. [To be completed in the next issue of the Newsletter]
[Max Grubb]
See Part 1
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21-Jul-2006
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